PRESS RELEASE
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Dr Bamidele A. Ojo
Nigeria Democratic Leadership Forum
c/o Council for Africanaffairs
Teaneck, Nj 07666. USA
Tel:(570)992-1237
Fax: 570 992-1237 (em:ndlf@geocities.com)
site:http://www.geocities.com/ndlf
Open letter to Nigerians ( August 6, 2000)
"ARISE O' COMPATRIOTS !" NIGERIA IS CALLING !!
An Open Letter To Fellow Nigerians
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Fellow Nigerians, last year in an open letter to the President, which
was published by the Guardian on Thursday April 22, 1999, I called on the
new leadership in Nigeria to do all in its power to combat the prevalent
and debilitating corrupt practices and irresponsible governance that has
plagued the country since its independence. It is obvious from our experience
that the only way in consolidating democracy and to promoting socioeconomic
development and the well being of our people, is through a legitimate government
authority. And this can only be guaranteed through probity, responsible
governance and accountable leadership. As I said then and very much true
today, an ethical leadership is a means toward establishing the public trust
in government and in bringing the public to accept that public office is
not a means to accumulate wealth but an avenue to provide public service
in the interest of all Nigerians. This is a challenge for all Nigerians
but the leadership must lay tangible examples. The current scandal in the
Nigerian senate is characteristic of our civic culture which in itself is
injurious to the development of the Nigerian state and nationhood. And we
must all accept responsibility for this. The Nigerian citizenry by its passiveness
has become a participant in the corrupt and abuse of our nation. Some might
say the situation was created by the decaying social morale and the creeping
poverty in every corners of our country. This has become a country where
honesty and probity is no longer a badge of honor but an inherent weakness
and invitation to partake in the wanton share of the Nigerian loot. Everybody
thinks about what they can gain and what type of contract they can apply
for before they worry about the bad roads and the decaying nature of our
hospitals and the incessant blackouts. Given the meekness of the Nigerian
people, its elite has turned leadership into a vehicle for distributing
ill earned resources and public assets among their allies and as a means
of sustaining themselves in power. The question is what do we have democracy
for. The rules of the games must be upheld and applied without doubts. A
violation of the rule of law and the application of justice is the measure
of a good governance and the building block of public trust in government.
The battle line is drawn, we as Nigerians must wage a war against dishonesty,
ineptitude and violation of the rule of law as established by the law of
the society.
While it must have been appropriate to review our constitution and to promote
a national acceptance of the document thereby riding it of its military
malaise and contradictions, the 1999 constitution constitute very much the
only thing that guides governance in Nigeria today and therefore should
be respected and any abuse of its provision by anybody in their separatist,
fundamentalist and ethnicist agenda should be prosecuted to the full extent
of the law. The separation of power should be enforced and the secular nature
of the Nigerian political experiment should be defended by the empowered
authority. In the same letter to the President, I enjoined the leadership
to establish a process whereby contracts , at all levels of government should
be subject to public review. The politics of contract has always been the
avenue for ill gotten affluence. All past leadership became rich and the
absence of public prosecution gives them more power to continue to influence
and undermine, for their own personal agenda, the future of the Nigerian
polity. This have to stop. Everybody in Nigerian politics must declare their
asset and in many instances explain how they come to own what they own and
this should be made public. The Nigerian press must rise to the occasion.
They now become the only protector of the average Nigerian. They must investigate
and publish within the requisite legal parameters all information pertaining
to the running of our democracy in order to inform and educate the Nigerian
electorate and to send messages to all who want to undermine our present
experiment that, Nigerians have had enough. IT IS TIME FOR THEM TO GO !.
All contract above N1 million( Naira) should be made public and the process
and competition for such a contract be presented for public examination
and evaluation. The same should be for pre-contract and post contract period
in order for Nigerians to have a proper sense of the work done and the validity
of the process. What we need to do is to take the award of contracts away
from the elected officials and put it under a board with some degree of
ethics and probity. This central contract warehousing should involve Nigerians
of high caliber with limited term of office and subject to public scrutiny
. This body should establish a pre- and post contract evaluation process.
This system should be replicated at all levels of government. A commission
for ethics and probity in government should be established to monitor all
levels of our government and it should present annual report to the public.
One cannot but be amazed at the current scandal which is just the tip of
the iceberg . In the past few months we have also witnessed a gradual return
to militarist and violence conduct in politics. We have seen young elected
officials abuse their power and abandon their responsibility. We have witnessed
a governor stood by while his security detail abuse a member of the media.
And we have seen wasteful expenditures. It is shameful. A $280,000 Christmas
bonus to a senate president when the most powerful person in the whole world
do not even earn that as a salary. What justification is there to spend
any amount of money on buying shredders in the senate, when many of their
constituents lives in darkness and some still linked by pre-independence
patches of roadway. Even more laughable is the fact that many of these elected
officials lacks any knowledge of the computer and I wonder who they want
to communicate with online- their constituents - shameful . This is symbolism
without value. It is simply irresponsible. From listening to the excuses
given by the leadership, it is obvious that they have become demi-gods and
we must wonder why. But think about this- We gave these people so much respect
and shower them with praises that they are no longer public servants but
the public masters. Many Nigerian are so poor and desperate that they have
lost all sense of decency. We no longer query these leaders and no longer
question the sources of their wealth. They have created in many Nigerians
a sense of hopelessness which promotes a nonchalant desire to join in the
looting and " get what we can mentality". If we are to take our
country back, we have to condemn this people. We need to send messages now.
We must vote more with our heads and ask for probity in government. The
flagrant abuse is not limited to the federal government. Why has the governors
of the states that declare sharia not been prosecuted for violating their
oath of office and the constitution. For example what prevents any of the
other states declaring traditional religion in their respective states,
whereby the laws of the oracles such as Ifa or and Sango are applied in
the same spirit as the sharia. Moreover, Islam as well as Christianity were
not authentic to the Nigerian society as do these other traditional religions.
Why do the federal legislature, the executive and the office of the attorney
general remain mute on this subject. Democracy can only survive if we apply
its rules and establish precedence by enforcing it. No unit should be allowed
to endanger the integrity of the whole -our nation. It is either you are
in or not and if you are not, the law must be applied to remedy your defiance.
This is not the time to be timid. This is the time to lead. This is the
time to act.
Finally, to all Nigerians currently not involved, many of whom are abroad
making a living. I know your hearts are in the right places and you cringe
when you see or hear about the goings -on in Nigeria. But we must be engaged
in order to restore sanity to our democratic experiment The question is
what can we do ?. We must join other dedicated Nigerians to salvage our
nation. We must find a way to contribute to our country. I cannot ask you
to make unnecessary sacrifices when the fruit of your labor may be hijacked
by some unscrupulous individuals who could careless about our nation or
when the family security you have toiled for can be taken away in a heart
beat , but we can help the process by working together as a movement to
make a change and provide avenue for those willing to take the first step
to help liberate our people from these malaise. We must help bring some
sanity. I am not ready to judge the President but more vision and leadership
must be shown. It might involve building a group of dedicated Nigerians
capable of providing that vision. The current group leaves much to be desired
and one, two, three or four decades of regressivist agenda by many of these
appointees is enough to show them the door. Nigeria will go on and for our
nation to survive. We must all join forces together and rescue it and help
sustain our state in this moments of despair. Join forces now and let us
take back our nation. The movement is inevitable and the spirit is joined
and we must move from the telephone banters , the cross-atlantic discourse,
conference room chants and newspaper/email/newsline exposees, to how to
move forward in the name of our nation. "Arise O' compatriot, Nigeria's
call obey !"
Thank you all and God bless Nigeria
Bamidele A Ojo PhD
School of Political & International Studies
Fairleigh Dickinson University
Teaneck, Nj 07666. USA
home page : http://alpha.fdu.edu/~ojo
To contact me :mailto:
PS: If you want to join the movement, please contact the Nigeria Democratic
Leadership Forum
at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/7684/
or at
NDLF
Project Nigeria
Council For Africanaffairs
P.O. Box 282. Teaneck. Nj 07666.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONGRATULATIONS PRESIDENT-ELECT OBASANJO
Teaneck, NJ, United States, March 2,1999— The Nigeria democratic Leadership Forum congratulates President-elect Olusegun Obasanjo on his victory and we hope this will bring a renewed beginning for the entire country. We call on all Nigerians to support the new President as Nigeria rededicate herself to assuming the great potential that was implicit at this nations'independence three decades ago. There are many wounds to be healed and it is our hope that a Nigeria under President Obasanjo will prepare us toward bridging the gaps and healing the pains of decades of disregards for the will and rights of Nigerians. This is an opportunity for renewal. This is an opportunity to rededicate ourselves to building a nation that we can all be proud of. We therefore call on the President and his party to unite the country through acts and deeds. To bridge the gap between the north and the south, within the north and within the south, between the rich and the poor because we are certainly all Nigerians. We call on Nigerians home and abroad to focus all their energy towards building a great nation and a great country. This is another opportunity to perform our duty on behalf of the future and better the aspirations of our past. So Mr President be dignify in victory and Chief Falae be dynamic in defeat. Both of you have an important role to play in redefining the path to greatness that has eluded us in the last three decades. We call on Chief Falae to accept defeat and declare his support for President -elect Obasanjo, thereby breaking the tradition that has befallen us and endangered all our previous attempts at democratization. Finally we congratulate every Nigerian, home and abroad for the standing tall inspite of the painful experiences of the past years. For truely, the strength we have all shown is an hallmark of certain greatness that we all know permeates the Nigerian spirit.